"Just one thing after another" - Unknown

The Wê Writer's Group

In July 2013, together with the painter Dio Lima, we brought together 6 young writers Akaisa Borges, Marlucy Bandeira, Gilberto “Gil” Ceita, Luisa Sofia Santos, Wilme Dias, and Edneyse Coelho for a writing workshop sponsored by myself and Mart Tarmak, the Estonian Ambassador to Finland (who signed Estonian diplomatic relations with STP in 2008). The workshops consisted of of traveling to meet the artists and view their paintings, interviews with artists, writing stories based on chosen paintings and and group discussions of the work created. The goal was to write over two weeks 6 short stories. Each would be based on one painting chosen from the hundreds we’d see. To enter into the paintings and imagine what could happen to the characters in there. Much like the Art Story by Aaron Blaise & Chuck Williams, as I only found out later. The 2 best stories were chosen by the members of Galo Cantá presenting awards to the winners.

A year before.

It was a warm evening in spring 2012. At Universidade Lusófona, Lisbon a screenwriting master-class. 8 of us students were sitting at a medium-sized roundtable and Gonçalo Galvão Teles brought Mia Couto’s The Last Flight of the Flamingo to the big screen. And now he's asking us hard questions about our stories. What are our character’s needs and wants? Why anyone would want to watch on a screen what’ve we put on the page? The workshop takes place every Tuesday evening — and by every Sunday night we have to submit our latest draft for the fellow students to review. To me it’s an influential experience and makes me want to always keep doing writing workshops such as this one. Writer’s groups that would allow me to keep collaborating with people who love writing as much as I do. But also a place to get away from the hustle and requirements of daily life, light up my imagination and cook up stories, one more fantastic than the other.

A few months later. Pedro Reis came late — or I was early — so I walked around barefoot and learned from a podcast about giving writers freedom to travel. Walking up a stone track to Obidos I distinctly remember listening to a podcast on writing. Before I reach Pedro Reis’ inspiration space I hear the two writers in the podcast saying: “Give us space and just let us go on a trip and we’ll come back with the writing”. I reached the top of the track when I realized the space was in the other direction. That time I was left without shoes so I had to walk barefoot and wash my feet in the fountain. People thought I was on a pilgrimage while I’m not even religious. Anyway..